Title
Solar Effects on the Atmospheric Electric Field During 2010–2015 at Low Latitudes
Date Issued
16 November 2018
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Mackenzie Presbyterian University
Publisher(s)
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Abstract
Solar phenomena such as flares and solar energetic particles events are potential candidates to affect the global atmospheric electric circuit. One can study these effects using measurements of the atmospheric electric field in fair weather regions. In this paper, we investigate deviations of the atmospheric electric field daily curve during solar disturbances (solar flares and solar proton events) from mean values obtained in fair weather conditions. Using the superposed epoch analysis, in order to enhance the visualization of small effects, we study the atmospheric electric field data observed between January 2010 and December 2015 at the Complejo Astronómico El Leoncito, San Juan, Argentina. The results show no deviation of the atmospheric electric field after solar flares, and an increase of about 10 V/m after solar proton events. The last result suggests possible ionization effects above thunderstorm in disturbed weather regions, which alters the global atmospheric electric circuit. On the other hand, we analyze the variation of the atmospheric electric field during a ground level enhancement on 17 May 2012, which was capable to produce changes on the surface electric field.
Start page
11,970
End page
11,979
Volume
123
Issue
21
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Geografía física
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85056305410
Source
Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
ISSN of the container
2169-897X
Sponsor(s)
J.T. would like to thank CAPES (finance code 001) for the funding. J.P.R. and J.T. would like to thank CNPq for the funding (project 422253/2016-2). R.R.S. M. thanks the China-Brazil Joint Laboratory for Space Weather. Data availability is described at the following websites: https://theafinsa.wordpress. com/data-download/ (atmospheric electric field), https://gle.oulu.fi/#/ (neutron monitor), and https://umbra.nas-com.nasa.gov/sdb/goes/ (solar flares and solar proton events). The authors thank the reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions, which helped to improve the quality of the paper.
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus